“Commercial media’s economic tailspin has pushed public media to the center of the debate over the future of journalism and the media, presenting the greatest opportunity yet to reinvigorate and re-envision the modern U.S. public media system,” argued the Free Press document, which was reviewed by WND.

The Free Press study urges the creation of a trust fund – largely supported by new fees and taxes on advertising and the private media – to jump start the founding of a massive government-run public media system that will ultimately become self-sufficient.

“We believe local news reporting should become one of public media’s top priorities,” said Free Press Managing Director Craig Aaron, one of the paper’s co-authors.

“We should redeploy and redouble our resources to keep a watchful eye on the powerful and to reliably examine the vital issues that most Americans can’t follow closely on their own,” Aaron stated.

Free Press is a well-known advocate of government intervention in the Internet.

Avowed Marxist

A new book, “The Manchurian President,” documents the founder of the Free Press, Robert W. McChesney, is an avowed Marxist who has recommended capitalism be dismantled.

The book, subtitled “Barack Obama’s ties to communists, socialists and other anti-American extremists,” also documents the close ties between Free Press and leading Obama administration officials. The new work was written by WND senior reporter Aaron Klein and co-author Brenda J. Elliott.

McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois and former editor of the Marxist journal Monthly Review.

In February 2009, McChesney recommended capitalism be dismantled.

“In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick-by-brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles,’” wrote McChesney in a column.

The board of Free Press has included a slew of radicals, such as Obama’s former “green jobs” czar” Van Jones, who resigned after it was exposed he founded a communist organization.

Crawford and Kevin Werbach, who co-directed the Obama transition team’s Federal Communications Commission Review team, are advisory board members at Public Knowledge, a George Soros-funded public interest group.

A Public Knowledge advisory board member is Timothy Wu, who is also chairman of the board for Free Press.

Like Public Knowledge, Free Press also has received funds from Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Issues of restrictions on speech are not limited to Crawford.

WND previously reported Obama’s “regulatory” czar, Cass Sunstein drew up a “First Amendment New Deal” – a new “Fairness Doctrine” that would include the establishment of a panel of “nonpartisan experts” to ensure “diversity of view” on the airwaves.

WND also reported that in a recently released book, “On Rumors,” Sunstein argued websites should be obliged to remove “false rumors” while libel laws should be altered to make it easier to sue for spreading such “rumors.”

In the 2009 book, Sunstein cited as a primary example of “absurd” and “hateful” remarks, reports by “right-wing websites” alleging an association between President Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers.

Sunstein also singled out radio talker Sean Hannity for “attacking” Obama regarding the president’s “alleged associations.”

Ayers became a name in the 2008 presidential campaign when it was disclosed he worked closely with Obama for years. Obama also was said to have launched his political career at a 1995 fundraiser in Ayers’ apartment.

Meanwhile, in a lengthy academic paper, Sunstein, argued the U.S. government should ban “conspiracy theorizing,” WND reported.

Among the examples of speech that should be banned, Sunstein offered, is advocating that the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud.

Sunstein also recommended the government send agents to infiltrate “extremists who supply conspiracy theories” and disrupt the efforts of the “extremists” to propagate their theories.

Earlier this week, a video at Breitbart.com showed Sunstein proposing Congress hold hearings about mandates to ensure websites post links to a diversity of views on issues.

“The Manchurian President,” meanwhile, which just hit the New York Times best-seller list, alleges Obama has deep ties to an extremist nexus that has been instrumental not only in building his political career but in crafting current White House policy.

With almost 900 citations, “The Manchurian President” bills itself as the most exhaustive investigation ever performed into Obama’s political background and radical ties.

Klein began investigating Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and broke major national stories. He first exposed the politician’s association with Ayers in a widely circulated WND article.

The story prompted the Nation magazine to lament, via the CBS News website, that “mainstream reporters now call the Obama campaign to ask about Klein’s articles.”

It was in a WABC Radio interview with Klein that Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to Hamas, “endorsed” Obama for president, generating world headlines and sparking controversy. Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain and Obama repeatedly traded public barbs over Hamas’ positive comments.

Klein was among the first reporters to expose that Obama’s “green jobs” czar, Van Jones, founded a communist organization and called for “resistance” against the U.S. government. The theme was picked up and expanded upon by the Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck, leading to Jones’ resignation last September.

Elliott, meanwhile, is a historian, author and investigative researcher known for her blogging during the 2008 presidential election about William Ayers, Tony Rezko and other controversial figures linked to Obama.